U.S. Pat. No. 7,651,492 granted to Wham discloses a system and method for performing electrosurgical procedures. The system includes sensor circuitry adapted to measure impedance and to obtain one or more measured impedance signals. The sensor circuitry is further adapted to generate one or more arc detection signals upon detecting an arcing condition. This is accomplished by passing the measured impedance tissue signal through a high pass filter and then passing the absolute value of the high pass filter through a low pass filter. The resulting filtered signal is the arc detection signal that is scaled and capped. The system disclosed by Wham further includes a controller adapted to generate one or more target control signals as a function of the measured impedance signals and to adjust the output of the electrosurgical generator based on the arc detection signal. Wham discloses detecting arcing by monitoring for rapidly repeating changes in measured signal such as the impedance signal and generating an arc detection signal. Since the system as disclosed by Wham relies on measuring changes in the impedance signal, it will result in the detection of an arcing condition and controlling of the output even if the arcing is insignificant. Furthermore, the system may not respond even if the arcing is significant as long as repeated arcing is not observed. Thus, Wham's system includes several deficiencies with respect to arc detection and energy control.